


Pepper up

by DLS_writes



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Comfort, Fluff, Fred Weasley Lives, Implied Twincest, M/M, No Smut, Sickfic, but quite subtle, hence the G-Rating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-02-27 05:55:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18732946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DLS_writes/pseuds/DLS_writes
Summary: Fred comes down with a cold but George is there to take care of him.





	Pepper up

**Author's Note:**

> I've read a few stories where George is ill and thought it would be time to _switch_ the roles... ;-)
> 
> The characters aren't mine but I hope you'll realize that I would never harm them in any way.

George was sound asleep and dreaming a pleasant dream of inventing a new potion when he was awoken by his twin who was lying next to him and was coughing as though he was trying to get rid of his bronchi. "Fred?" George asked still quite drowsy and turned to face his brother. "Freddie, are you alright?" - "Don't sound like it... do I?" came the answer along with more coughs and an intense sneeze at the end. Startled, George reached for his bedside drawer and pulled out a pack of tissues. "Thank you," Fred said miserably as his twin handed him one and he blew his nose with a trumpeting sound. George looked pitifully at him. Fred had not felt well the evening before but the symptoms had obviously become a lot worse during the night. He reached out to feel his brother's forehead. "Gee, Freddie, you're glowing! I'll dash out to the emergency pharmacy and get you some potion against the fever." - "No! Don't go! ... Stay here! ... I just... need _you_! ACHOO!" Fred managed to communicate between more coughs. George heaved a sigh and contemplated this for a moment. He didn't really want to leave Fred alone and if it was him, he wouldn't want for his brother to leave him either. He knew how clingy they both got when they were ill and therefore decided that he could still go to the pharmacy in the morning. "Ok, alright. I'll stay. But let me at least get you something to drink, yeah? You need to drink a lot, keep your throat wet." Fred agreed slightly reluctant and George went to get him a glass of water. He gratefully drank a few gulps, then stretched out his arms to George. "Cuddle me?" Fred asked with wide, tired eyes and George could not help the huge rush of affection and love at the deplorable sight of his twin in this sad state. "Awww, c'mere, you..." he said and took Fred into his arms, holding him in a tight embrace. They sank back into the covers and George fumbled the blanket back over them both. "Better?" he asked tentatively. Fred snuggled up against him, holding onto his brother as tightly as he could given his state, and nodded. George, reassured by this affirmation, felt somewhat relieved and planted a kiss on the top of Fred's head. "Sleep, Love. Sleep is good for you. It'll all be fine," he whispered, gently stroking over Fred's hair, and waited for his brother to fall asleep before he allowed himself to drift off again too.

When Fred woke up a few hours later, he was drenched in sweat. His hand felt around for George but his twin had obviously already gotten up. "Georgiiiie!" Fred whined loudly and immediately began to cough again. George, who was standing in the kitchen at that moment, sighed softly. He had seen this coming, knowing how Fred was when he was ill. But of course he would take care of him as best as he could and he _wanted_ to be there for his other half after all. He walked over to the bedroom and smiled as lovingly as possible at Fred. "Morning, Freddie. How are you doing?" More coughs. "Not well. Georgie... ACHOO! Meeeh!" Fred whinced and blew his nose again. George considered his twin a bit closer and saw that his pyjamas were completely damp, wet even. "Let's get you out of those, why don't we? You should wear something dry." - "You want to take... advantage of me? ACHOO! In this state?" George couldn't suppress a grin. "Right Freddie. You look so damn sexy when your eyes are puffy and your nose is runny like this," he laughed, already unbuttoning Fred's pyjama shirt. "I'm gonna get you naked now and then get the lube. Will that be fine?" He was glad to see that Fred laughed a little, even though this forced him to cough more. As long as they could make jokes and laugh together, the situation couldn't be that bad.

"What would you like for breakfast?" George asked his brother, when he had helped him into comfortably dry pyjamas. "But those'll get all wet too... won't they?" - "Doesn't matter Freddie, then we'll change them again. Here, drink this." George handed him a small bottle with dark liquid in it. "What's this?" Fred asked sceptically. "It's pepper up potion. The special one, against colds. I got it from the pharmacy earlier, when you were still asleep." - "Naaah, medicine is... ugh! I don't want it!" George sighed again. "Oh Freddie, come on. It'll help you get better! And fast!" - "You want me... to get better... so you won't have to... take care of me... anymore," Fred coughed. "Don't be silly, I want you to get better because I don't want you to feel ill! I love you! I want you to feel all good and fit and healthy!" - "Then cuddle me!" George smiled at the childishness of his twin but didn't judge him in the slightest. After all, he loved Fred's childish side and knew that he - George - could be just the same. "Ok, I will. But first you need to eat a bit. So, breakfast. I also did some grocery shopping. You can have pancakes or scones or something hearty - eggs and bacon maybe?" - "Cookies!" - "Come again?" - "Cookies, Georgie, I want cookies!" George thought that cookies weren't exactly a healthy breakfast but he reasoned that if cookies were the only thing Fred would eat of his own free will, then he'd get him cookies. "Alright, cookies it is. But I'll have to get those first. Shouldn't be gone long, though. Five minutes?" - "Don't gooo!" Fred wailed. "But Fred," said George in a reasonable voice, "I can either be gone for five minutes and get you a huge supply of cookies or I can stay here, then you'll have to make do with pancakes." Fred pondered this for a moment, then mumbled something incomprehensible. "Excuse me?" George said. "Want Henry," came Fred's voice a little clearer and with yet another cough. George smiled understandingly. Their stuffed animals, Fred's hyena and George's coyote, had been gifts from Bill and Charlie when the twins had just been born. Of course, their parents had paid for them but their older brothers had been allowed to pick out the plush toys and and apparently, little Bill and Charlie had been very proud of that. Although the twins rarely needed anything to cuddle with as they've always had each other, the plush animals had lived in their bed for a long time and even when they moved them out at around the age of 9, the stuffed figures had found a new home not far away from the bed on the armchair that had stood in the middle of their room. Now that they had their own flat, Henry and Carl had moved rather unceremoniously into a closet but every now and then, mainly when one of the twins was ill and the need for cuddles was increased, they would get them out again for some additional comfort. Consequently, George handed Fred the stuffed hyena, softly kissed him on his forehead and went out to get the cookies.

When he came back, George found Fred curled up and asleep in bed, with Henry in his arms. He smiled affectionately and carefully fixed the blanket that had slid off his brother's back so that it would cover him completely again. Fred's eyes fluttered open at the touch. "Georgie," he said, smiling too, obviously happy that his twin was back again. "Hey Freddie... Go back to sleep again, you looked so peaceful." - "Nah, I'm hungry," Fred said, sitting up, "And I wasn't that fast asleep either. More dozing..." he added as he coughed again. "Ok, here you are then. Cookies. And loads of them. I got you your favorite - double chocolate chip. Fred beamed, tore open the pack his brother handed him and began to polish off the cookies at an impressive speed, sending crumbs everywhere. George laughed softly and siphoned the crumbs away with his wand. "Gonna get you some tea to wash that down, ok?" George offered and went to the kitchen after Fred had nodded in approval, still chewing.

"There you go - ginger tea for the ginger cutie," George grinned as he handed Fred a steaming mug with cut ginger roots in simmering water. He had cast a cooling charm on the outside of the mug so that Fred wouldn't burn his hands touching it. "You didn't put any pepper up potion in there, did you?" Fred asked suspiciously at which George looked indignant. "So _that's_ why you wanted the cookies? To make sure I didn't spike them with something that would make you feel better?" George couldn't help but laugh, "You're worse than Mad-Eye!" - "Constant vigilance, George!" answered Fred and began to cough again. "But really... I fancied the cookies... didn't want anything else..." he added, took the mug from George and sniffed it. "There's nothing in there, except ginger. I swear!" Fred gave in with a sigh and carefully drank some of the hot liquid while George put away the cookie wrappers and freed the bed of crumbs once more. "Uaaah, burns!" Fred pouted resentfully and tried to hand the mug back to George. "I know it's hot but it'll help you!" George told him, refusing to take the mug. "Drink it up and we can cuddle some more.... come on, be a good boy." A sly grin spread accross Fred's face and George was stunned to see his brother drinking the tea after all. When he was done, George felt his forehead once more, put the mug away and got back to bed, taking Fred into his arms again. "Mmmmh, that's good!" Fred mumbled pleased as George stroked his back. "Why don't you sleep some more, Love? I think your coughing has already gotten a bit better." - "Yeah, but the sniffles has gotten worse," Fred said, illustratively blowing his nose again at which George snorted. "You're a little drama queen, you are..." he smiled and kissed his twin's forehead again. "Yeah, but I'm _your_ drama queen, aren't I?" Fred grinned back and closely snuggled up against his brother. "You sure are," George said softly and a few moments later, Fred's snores told him that he had fallen asleep again.

"No Mum, really, we'll be _fine_! We're grown men, you know?" - "Ha! _Grown men_ , at the age of 23! _Grown men_ who still need their mother when one of them falls ill?" Mrs. Weasley's voice sounded utterly unconvinced by George's words as she spoke with him out of the twins' living room fire. "Mum," George said sternly, "I _can_ manage without you. I was merely reaching out to my beloved mother for some advice, but if you are unwilling to grant me that, I will just go on by myself." He turned and made to go back to the kitchen, when Molly shouted after him: "Alright, alright! I'll tell you but... promise, to keep in touch and let me know how Fred's doing, will you?" - "Ok, ok, promised," George gave in and knelt back down in front of the fireplace, "Now tell me..."

"What was that noise earlier? Have you been talking to someone?" Fred inquired when his brother brought him a bowl of hot soup. "Yeah, I talked to mum... needed a tip for that chicken soup recipe..." George answered evasively. Fred, who had just brought the first spoonful of soup to his mouth, spat it out in shock. "You talked to _mum_? She _knows_ I'm ill? When will she arrive? She isn't here yet, is she?!" Fred, coughing again, looked wildely around as if his mother might be hiding somehere in their bedroom. "Merlin, no! Fred, calm down! It's fine... I convinced her to stay at the Burrow. Ron and Hermione are there at the moment so she has got enough to fuss over anyway. She _wanted_ to take care of you of course... But I made her see sense. After all, if anyone knows what you need, it's me, right?" George winked and beckoned for Fred to keep on eating. "Eat as long as it's still hot. It's mum's special. You'll be up and about in no time at all." Obediently, Fred resumed eating. After a few spoons he looked up. "You sure that's mum's recipe? It tastes even better than _her_ soup, Georgie." - "Why thank you! I added some extra thyme, that might be it," George grinned. "You sure you want to keep running that joke shop? You'd make a great chef too," Fred grinned back as he ate the soup, leaving not even a drop behind.

When Fred was done eating, George made himself comfortable next to him again. He opened his arms and Fred happily scrambled into them, curling up close to his brother again. George held him and stroked a strand of hair out of Fred's face. "Sleep again now. I know you hate having to sleep so much, not being able to do anything, but trust me... When you wake up again you'll feel a lot better." The suspicious expression returned to Fred's face at those words. "Why are you saying this like... you know... all smug and... convinced?" - "Well, dearest brother of mine... you do know I love you and I would never _lie_ to you... only... I mean... a little... very small _white_ lie..." - "What? What d'you mean? What've you done?" Fred asked puzzled and a little disgruntled. "Well, I did talk to mum and asked her about the soup... Only I didn't ask for the recipe itself but for a way to spike the soup with pepper up potion without you noticing. She recommended thyme, so..." Fred's immediate impulse was to be indignant, to protest, but when he saw his brother's lips spread into the mischievous smile he loved to much, he simply couldn't be mad at George. He knew that George had meant well and that he was actually right too. "Ok, I'll forgive you... this once..." he said, wrapping his arms around his twin's waist. "Oh, I'm so glad, Freddie, thank you!" George said a little mockingly but gave a playful kiss on Fred's hair all the same. "Then sleep now. I need you to be fit because that'll be more fun for both of us. And we really need to talk about the dream I had last night - not _that_ kind of dream," George said quickly when Fred leered at him, "Well... not quite anyway... I dreamed of an idea for a new potion but I'll tell you all about that when you're well again." Fred was curious but still too tired to keep talking. His brother's wink was the last thing he saw before he fell asleep once more, willing to let the pepper up potion work it's magic.

 

 


End file.
